I’m excited to announce that, as of a couple of week ago, I started as a Director of Product at Indeed. Without going into too much detail, my role will be focused on helping job seekers everywhere with their entire journey around getting jobs.

If you’re in the process of job hunting, do take notes on what you’ve found challenging, what tools you wish you had, what you wish could be better, and let me know!

What about the Vague Mountain?

In my time off, I managed to spend some time to figure out the areas I wanted to focus on and laid out my longer term goals in a post about a mountain to head towards. A few things have changed since then.

Headings Towards a Vague Mountain

First, I still believe there’s a paradoxical lack of connection in our connected world and an opportunity to help people find their communities and build meaningful connections. I continue to try and find ways to work on this area but haven’t found a great link into business so in the meantime, my efforts here continue from a personal level, both from the volunteer work I do in communities and our Burning Man camp that focuses on friendships.

Second, while I enjoyed dabbling in the VR space and learning Unity and C#, I believe there’s a long road ahead for mainstream adoption still. If you haven’t tried it, I think you’ll be surprised at how good the technology has become, but the barriers in cost, effort, and attention are still high. I also don’t believe this is a crucial part of my own personal mountain.

Finally, even from last summer, the political climate has dramatically changed. Immediately after the election, I wrote about a few things the tech industry could focus on:

A Time to Act

I didn’t list, “helping people get jobs,” as one of those—in part because I feel unemployment and disenfranchisement is better served by improving education and opportunities.

But having a job leads to opportunity. And having a job leads to less of a feeling of being disempowered. Indeed’s mission is, “we help people get jobs,” and I’ve seen evidence that they value this over all other metrics. You can see it in their (in my opinion, under-marketed) site where 10 million people share their stories: http://gotajob.indeed.com/

How we help people get jobs goes well beyond just listing jobs. I’m looking forward to exploring these solutions.

And of course…

We’re hiring. Indeed has offices in dozens of cities with product/technology centers in Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tokyo. Let me know if you’re interested in joining.

Helping People Get Jobs was originally published in kev/null/writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As we process the election results and the future of this country, the sensible thing to do is to remember, as President Obama said, that the sun will come up in the morning.

But it’s all too easy to confuse stoicism with fatalism, and act as if nothing has changed. Already, I’m seeing a quick return to inane marketing, promotions, product launches, and Westworld theories in my feeds and inbox.

As a Canadian and Permanent Resident of the United States, I have a door out if I so desire. But the effects and actions of this country are far reaching and deserve attention.

As an Asian male, I’m fairly privileged and, thus far, fairly unaffected by most of the hate spewed by Trump’s campaign. But what he stands for deeply impacts the safety and rights of those I love, and I’m probably one North Korean or Chinese act of aggression away from being bucketed as an “other”.

Trump becoming President isn’t the problem. Nearly 60 million Americans voting for Trump is the problem.

It’s tempting to go back to some feeling of normalcy and to rationalize everything as, “not that bad.” Maybe it even isn’t “that bad.” But let this be a very clear marker that things can be that bad, and we must fight to stop it and prevent it in the future.

Let’s start talking about things we can focus on with our collective minds.

Never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it. — Hillary Clinton

Educate As Many As Possible

Although it’s inaccurate to say most uneducated voters voted for Trump, it is true Trump did significantly better with whites with no college degrees.

Education is the key to a thriving economy ready for the future. The lack of it is the key to disenfranchisement and a feeling of being left behind. One only needs to look at the demographic of both Brexit and Trump voting to see this.

We’re not going to see free college education, or an eradication of student debt, anytime soon. It’s time to stop pretending that government will take the initiative and start solving the problems ourselves.

I’m inspired by companies like Bridge International Academy, which serves “700 million families who live on less than $2 USD a day”. They utilize satellite and aerial imagery along with mobile real estate applications to find places for new schools. They standardize their teacher training and assesments so that they can train 400 teachers a day and still select for the best. They process test scores and use that data to drive new teaching scripts.

These are approaches we are familiar with. Surely, we can not only find ways to make higher education more widely available but also more affordable.

Promote Truth

Education is not just about skills and degrees. It’s also about learning the importance of facts and scientific method.

As an alum of Twitter, I’ve always been inspired by the voice that we’ve given to those who formerly had little. But that engine is now a gigantic shouting machine that displays all information equally, without predjudice.

Yet it distributes them inequally, serving misinformation farther and faster than corrections. Facebook faces similar problems.

What can we do to amplify facts over fiction? How can we stop perpetuating outright lies yet not be editors of the internet? Do we need more resources like Politifact and Snopes?

Patrick Ewing on Twitter

I wish there was a podcast on hoaxes, misinformation & misunderstood satire. A weekly roundup of shit we shared that turned out to be false.

Perhaps we can look at how often a shared link is then commented on with a fact-checking site and include that link. Perhaps we can make it easier, in our endless sea of algorithms, to find facts when we need to.

Build Connections and Bridges

Another aspect of the shouting engine we’ve built is that we’ve made it very difficult to listen. Regardless of the sincerity of the answers from the candidates, one of the best questions in the second presidential debate was this:

Regardless of the current rhetoric, would either of you name one positive thing that you respect in one another?

The question is unique in that it appealed to what each appreciated about the other. It was a question that hoped to evoke connection rather than separation; togetherness rather than opposition.

As I’ve written before, I believe that lack of empathy and understanding prevents us from ever striving towards common goals of mutual protection and safety. I’m watching Facebook friends unfriend others for their opposiing views—understandably so, for they feel their safety has been personally attacked. Yet this simply furthers our feeling of “us” vs. “them.”

People seem to have less patience and desire to understand and empathize with the views of their “opposition”.

We are all humans and all have the same desires and needs: food, safety, shelter, love, respect. Even those who vote or act out of fear are doing so because of these core needs. Agreeing to see these does not mean you also need to accept their choices.

Instead of a shouting engine, what types of things can we create (whether they be products, community events, or art) to highlight what we have in common rather than how we are different? How can we help others see, or even feel, the threats we each face?

According to this NY Times Op-Ed, there are many ways to increase empathy. Inspiring feelings of awe, going into nature, sharing uplifting stories of sacrifice, thinking about suffering, literary fiction, and moments of contemplation are all avenues to expand empathy. That’s a very large menu to choose from.

Tackle Climate

It’s already rumoured that Trump will pick a proud climate skeptic to lead the EPA transition. Trump’s term may be only 4 years, perhaps 8, but his actions and inaction will have repercussions far beyond that. As the country with the second-highest CO2 emissions, those repercussions will likely be global.

So it seems clear that the pending government will not address some time-sensitive environmental issues.

Elon Musk showed us that he can move an entire industry by making electric vehicles not only a better replacement for the environment but also a viable and lucrative business and a better car.

There are so many places to look to improve. Make it smarter and easier for us to recycle and compost. Explore how we can replace monoculture crop farming. Create sensors to help every company and citizen make better decisions. We are an industry of innovation and innovation can provide not only value to shareholders but also to the world.

Value More Than The Returns

To my venture capital and angel investing friends, I encourage you to look beyond the returns and invest in markets and products that yield value to the macroeconomic landscape. I alternate between being a pragmatist and an idealist and don’t believe you should simply throw your money at money-losing ventures.

However, our system is built on you pushing each of your portfolio companies to 100x returns no matter the social or psychological cost. Foster and invest in companies who have the courage to do more than grow engagement and sell ad revenue. Look at the markets that have been left behind.

And So Much More

I’ve only scratched the surface of what we might be able to tackle and expend more effort on. There are plenty more that deserve attention. Some examples:

• Privacy: Especially with so many marginalized groups now at risk of being targeted, how can we influence our companies and products to protect the identities of our users and ensure their safety? How can we support the efforts of organizations like the EFF?
• Cyberbullying: How can we help make avenues of discourse safe for all participants?
• Diversification: What can we do within our communities, whether they’re online, our department, our company, or our neighborhood, to encourage more diversified participation and inclusion?

I wrote this as much for myself as I did for others. I‘ve struggled for awhile now to determine where to focus my energies and make a positive impact and I feel I’ve done too little, too late to prevent the present condition.

I refuse to let that continue and I know many others feel the same way. For now, I’m still exploring how to build bridges and empathy through VR. It’s possible that VR is too far from being mainstream to be the effective path for what I want to do but at least I’ll be trying something.

Let this be a note for myself and perhaps you on other things to try as well. If you know someone wanting to do something, please feel free to share and comment.

Thanks to Joshua Kaufman, Joel Kraut, and Maciej Ceglowski.

Suggested Reading

• Actions Speak Louder Than Works — Margaret Killjoy
• Forget “Why?”, it’s time to get to work. — Anil Dash
• The Unexotic Underclass — C.Z. Nnaemeka
• A monster took over the White House and now the future is up to us — Krista Sanders
• Fuck you Facebook. That’s What This Election Taught Us — Michael Abehsera

A Time to Act was originally published in kev/null/writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Or basically another way of advocating rapid iteration

Those that know me know that I can be a bit of a perfectionist (though no, I’ve never used that as my “weakness” in an interview). I want to make sure the details are right and everything is in its place. Like many coming from design, I notice the border that’s a pixel off or label that’s the wrong typeface.

However, when it comes to the process of creating a product, I ask myself, designers, engineers, anyone really, to show something. To just make something to disagree with.

Once you have a mockup, a prototype, a sketch, or just about anything, you have something to comment on. This starts the process of discussion and helping everyone get closer to understanding what the right thing is.

Imagine you’re redecorating your home and searching for the perfect dining table. The process could be, “think of all of your needs and preferences, list those out, describe the perfect dining table, and then go find it and buy it.”

Or it could be, “let’s look at some dining tables. How about this one? No? Why not?” Eventually, with a few of those, you’ll come to a clearer understanding of what you’re looking for and why.

By having something in front of you, you can say what you don’t like. You can disagree with it and then assess why, which helps you determine what you actually want.

Disagreeing with something is information.

Make Something to Disagree With was originally published in kev/null/writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“I’m going to try to figure out this Mountain to head towards. It doesn’t have to be clear and distinct. It can be sort of misty and vaguely over there and then I’ll know if I’m heading closer or farther away.”

“So, a Vague Mountain.”

I was catching up with my friend and co-founder Arshad, filling him in on what was next for me. And from that conversation, the term “Vague Mountain” was born. It has a nice ring to it. Catchy. Visual. Visceral.

It’s been almost a year since leaving Yahoo, who had acquired my startup Incredible Labs. Much of this time was spent traveling, working on personal projects, and generally getting some space and perspective.

Upon returning, I felt reinvigorated and ready to get back into the thick of things. I was feeling antsy to apply my experience and skills to something worthwhile.

But what exactly is “worthwhile”? Is it to start another company? Is it a VP Product or Design position at a startup? Tackle climate change? Social justice? Education?

As I attempted to answer questions from friends and recruiters alike on, “what’s next?” and, “what are you looking for?” I could only give answers of exclusion.

I knew I only wanted to start a company if I felt I had something I wanted to see built that would not get done otherwise and I knew I didn’t want to work on a product that simply satisfied “something your mother used to do for you”. But I couldn’t seem to get past that to any more specificity.

I was stuck.

One day, I came across Neil Gaiman’s (writer of acclaimed graphic novel series Sandman) 2012 commencement speech at the University of Arts. I’ll skip you to the part that spoke most to me but I encourage you to watch the whole thing at some point. It’s full of gems for artists and non-artists alike.

“Something that worked for me was imagining that where I wanted to be[…]imagining that was a Mountain…a distant Mountain. My goal.

And I knew that as long as I kept walking towards the Mountain, I’d be all right. And when I truly was not sure what to do I could stop and think about whether it was taking me towards or away from the Mountain.” — Neil Gaiman

When you have a Mountain, you can make decisions based on whether it brings you closer to the Mountain. Some might call it a Mission Statement — I prefer the visual of the Mountain.

Perhaps it’s because I’m older and further along in my career. Perhaps it’s because I have more options and have analysis paralysis. But I realized that I had put immense pressure on the next step being exactly right. As I get older, time feels more precious and each step is taken with more (and too much) caution.

What if, instead of focusing on what was next, I tried to figure out what my Mountain was? By taking the pressure off the next foot forward, I could step back and determine what I wanted to do — to figure out what my Mountain was.

This differs from a 5-year goal or 5-year plan. For me, it doesn’t even need to be a very distinct mountain — just a rough shape in the distance. A 5-year plan is a specific path with a specific end point. I wanted a direction and was comfortable knowing there are many paths that could lead there. Hence, it’s my Vague Mountain.

Once I had changed my goal from determining what’s next to finding my Vague Mountain, things crystallized quickly. Within a week, I came to the realization that this is what I want to spend my time heading towards:

To use virtual reality as a platform to build empathy and emotional connection.

Why virtual reality? Why empathy? Why is this what I want to focus on? Here’s why…

The world needs more empathy and connection

People and issues have become increasingly polarized—leaving very little room for grey. We see this played out most clearly with the current US elections and with Brexit but, even in small issues, there seems to be little room for middle ground. People seem to have less patience and desire to understand and empathize with the views of those less fortunate or their “opposition”.

“Our attention is focused on classifying, analyzing, and determining levels of wrongness rather than on what we and others need and are not getting.” — Non-Violent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg

Empathy is a choice but we need connection to have the desire to empathize. Or perhaps we need empathy to desire connection. Regardless of which is the chicken and which is the egg, we largely are now a society of isolated individuals “connected” digitally.

But we’re not more connected. We’re lonelier than ever.

“Another survey by the Mental Health Foundation found that in the UK one in ten of us feels lonely often and 48 per cent of people think we are getting lonelier in general.” —The Loneliness Epidemic, Independent

Numerous studies have shown that loneliness is a major health risk. We need to develop better ways for people to connect and we need to help people empathize with those whose circumstances differ from their own.

We have not evolved our emotional skills

From technology to physical health and medicine, we’ve advanced and evolved in many ways. We can send robots to Mars and automatically land shuttles on tiny barges. We can drive cars without human drivers. We can fix almost any physical ailment and even replace lost limbs.

Yet for all this advancement, we are still victims of slow evolution. Fear is triggered constantly because stories, pictures, and videos of danger are spread with greater reach. We are in a denser, but overall safer, world but we have not evolved our emotional skills and triggers to overcome our reptilian responses.

“Horror inflicted on other people surrounds us constantly. And Adophs argues that because of our wiring, we are not setup to ignore it. And so it distorts our experience of the world, activating our fear when we don’t need it.” — Alix Spiegel, “Fearless” Invisibilia Season 1, Episode 2

Most of us are not taught how to communicate our feelings and needs or worse, are taught that speaking about feelings are weak. We do not know how to practice emotional first aid.

Emotional connection, communication, and empathy are my passion

I spend a great deal of my time building and fostering communities. In 2013, I started a Burning Man camp called Friendlandia. The camp’s goal is to help people recognize and celebrate friendships.

Unlike romantic relationships, which have many traditions and ceremonies like engagement, marriage, and anniversaries, friendships are rarely recognized and celebrated.

So we created a Friendship Ceremony which you can perform with a friend to share what they mean to you.

A couple of years ago, I noticed upon my friend’s death that his Facebook page was filled with words about what he meant to them but, in the same feed, another friend’s birthday only warranted pithy notes—sometimes consisting of only 3 letters: “HBD.” I subsequently spent a year sending only birthday notes where I expressed what I appreciated about the subject.

I care deeply about many issues but passion has a way of just coming through no matter what and makes you act. In this realm, I’ve consistently acted.

Virtual reality (VR) is actual experience and presence

I’m typically quite allergic to hype cycles. With VR, the hype has been much greater than almost anything I can recall in my 17 years in industry. There’s a lot of money thrown in on one end and a lot of enthusiasts willing to work in the space for free on the other. This combination often does not end well.

But my clarifying moment was when I was able to watch friends outside of the bubble experience it for the first time. Without exception, I witnessed amazement, astonishment, and wonder.

I observed people getting lost in Tilt Brush art, feeling wonder or anxiety in an underwater experience, and squealing with joy as they walked in a dust cloud on the playa in Black Rock City.

Unlike watching a movie or playing a video game, VR is actually experiencing something you may not otherwise experience. It’s been shown to have longer lasting effects (both positive and negative) in myriad ways.

We already are seeing VR used to take school field trips to far off lands, help people regain mobility from spinal injuries, help elderly people combat depression, combat common fears such as public speaking, replace painkillers for pain management, therapeutically calm people through meditation and breathing practice, help students with Autism learn, and many more applications.

Even Planned Parenthood has been experimenting with VR, creating a movie experience where you walk into the entrance of a clinic while being verbally abused and spat on by protestors en route. These are the type of experiences that create empathy and understanding. From the Newsweek article about the project:

“Regardless of what is and isn’t available at Planned Parenthood, this is just not how to act toward people, McDonald-Mosley says, and her organization made the film — and chose to make it in virtual reality — to help people see what it’s like to be treated that way.”

Newsweek then goes on to explore the potential implications of this new medium.

“This suggests that in the right context, immersive VR can positively affect a person’s theory of mind — the cognitive ability to take on different perspectives and assess other people’s emotions, beliefs, hopes and intentions.”

Even without VR, games such as That Dragon, Cancer are illustrating what’s possible when seeing through the perspective of others.

In addition to the possibility of virtually being in someone else’s shoes, VR also offers the opportunity for connection — particularly for those that may find it challenging to do so.

For example, researchers are experimenting with helping adults with autism spectrum disorder practice social skills in simulations. So far, the results have been promising.

Social bonds have been created digitally as through BBSs and IRC chats, World of Warcraft guilds, and many other unexpected ways. Video chats have brought us closer to being able to connect with people far away.

Virtual reality offers a deeper opportunity for social connection.

VR is being invested in and will proliferate

While many researchers and developers are interested in experimenting with this new platform, it wouldn’t be meaningful for my goals if I didn’t believe they would become widely available and accessible.

The level of investment major companies such as Facebook, Sony, and Valve have made is certainly a positive indicator. However, the strongest indicator that VR can become commonplace is Google’s investment in affordable solutions like Cardboard and their Daydream platform.

I’ve been interested in VR for a very long time

Soon after I started earnestly diving into and experimenting with VR, I realized that I’d actually been dabbling on and off in VR — and its cousin Augmented Reality (AR) — over many years.

As far back as the 1997, I took a course on CAD. For my final project, instead of just creating a 3D model of my choosing, I decided to dabble in this newfound thing called VRML and created a virtual replica of my school’s engineering lab so we could virtually rearrange furniture, experiment with new configurations, and walkthrough the lab before committing to a new layout and disrupting students.

In 2009, just as smartphones started getting gyroscopes and could determine direction, I became fascinated with the idea that one could overlay information over the camera viewport on their phone.

So fascinated, in fact, that I shipped a game where you can hunt ghosts. I subsequently gave a presentation at Interactions 10 conference on the state of the technology and industry.

It seems that subconsciously, I’ve always had an interest in this realm.

When I share my Vague Mountain with people, many ask questions such as, “how are you going to do that?” or, “so what does that look like?”

The answer is, “I don’t know.” Having the Mountain as a destination means that I don’t need to solve that immediately. Knowing where I want to go, I can now know which projects and which jobs move me closer to the Mountain.

I’ve had the good fortune of what many would consider a solid career. From an electrical engineering background, I’ve had the opportunity to design, code, and do user research for Fortune 500 companies like Sun Microsystem and British Airways.

I’ve designed for Yahoo Maps and designed the now-defunct-but-still-loved Pipes, ran product and design at a gaming social network, ran multiple product teams at Twitter (including its first redesign), and created (and sold) a mobile personal assistant company.

Many struggle with pigeonholing me for this reason — I don’t fall neatly in a category over decades of work.

There is, however, one constant. Whether it’s creating a product, a book, or even throwing a party, I have always focused on creating a narrative and memorable experience.

I’m a storyteller.

How I tell the story is dependent on what tools I need and thankfully, I have many at my disposal. I’m finding this breadth to be perfect for the stage that VR is in—one that requires a great deal of prototyping and experimentation.

As I search for the right opportunities and collaborators, I’m continuing to build my skills in Unity (you can check out my nascent Virtual Reality Burning Man), to learn about communication, connection, and empathy, and to experiment with different experiences and interactions.

I’m interested in finding a home to collaborate on creating unique experiences — whether they are labeled games, social, or otherwise.

If you know of a home that might be a good first step towards this Vague Mountain of mine, share this article with people, or get in touch.

Headings Towards a Vague Mountain was originally published in kev/null/writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Donate Here

The following is a story from my dear friend Matthew Sturm who went to Haiti for a week where they created a tool bus, painted and repaired bridges and buildings, ran a fundraiser, and even launched a Haitian chocolate bar. The fundraiser culminated in burning an art piece they had constructed and this is a story of how burning art changes the art.

You start with a vision. This art will express something deep within you to the world. Then you build a coalition, you share the vision and watch it grow and morph as more people engage with the project and add their personal touches. You spend your time and money, you work hard, you argue. And eventually, your project comes to life.

And then you did it, it’s on display for the world to see. You admire it. Your team admires it. Friends and other folks get to see your project and: yeah it’s pretty cool…

And there you have it.

Unless, you decide to burn your art. That changes everything.

Even before the burn, your art becomes an experience. People go from being art spectators or appreciators, to entering into the unique present-moment magic of the art.

They become part of the art, because the art is now this present moment. The impermanence brings immediacy.

During the burn, there is a climax of energy — all of these people focusing their energy on this piece of art. Consuming your art energetically, as the flames consume it physically. And it takes on a life of its own. Your art experience is creating meaning for everyone present. And that’s a deeply rewarding outcome for art: to create meaning.

I remember being in Haiti, on top of this warehouse roof lighting off fireworks, and then looking down at the circle of people surrounding our wooden heart as it went up in huge flames. Then this guy Pat ran right in front of the heart and bowed down in front of it — here’s a photo from my vantage on the roof:

It was EPIC.

On Burning Art was originally published in kev/null/writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Jeni was quiet. I’d hurt her, I knew. I could see in her eyes that there was no going back. She didn’t say a word. We were done. We didn’t speak again.

High School

Hong Kong. I spent my formative years in a British high school here. It was a place of privilege, I recognize now, filled with all nationalities. It was also a place with all your typical high school woes and concerns that seemed to mean the world—for it was your world. A place where you can be an ethnic majority in the city but a minority in your weekday world. A place where British sarcasm and biting judgement was augmented by high school insecurities and built on top of a foundation of 6 million hustling, self-absorbed, individuals on a tiny island.

Those years honed a number of, for lack of a better term, “skills.” In learning to verbally defend myself, I learned irony, snark, and biting insults. I also learned to verbally hurt—and I’m not talking about, “your momma,” jokes or anything quite so trite. I felt I had developed an ability to really dig into a person’s flaws or, more accurately, their insecurities over what their flaws might be, and amplify them.

Worst yet, I prided myself in these skills. It felt powerful. It was my power.

About a Decade Later…

Austin, TX. My first job out of college brought me to this liberal aberration of Texas. I love this town and met many longtime friends here.

Near the end of my time there, I spent an inordinate amount of time with two people: Mike and Jeni. We spent almost every day together and our adventures were wide and varied. Days on the lake, road trips to taste test Texan barbecue, days being completely goofy at a home, sharing stories of romance, sharing shoulders of support…

One day, Jeni and I got into a heated debate—I don’t even recall what about. Jeni was one of the closest friends I’d ever had so it was easy to tap into that power. I was angry and disappointed at her. I probably just wanted my way and wanted to guilt her. Or hurt her. Or both.

So in that moment, I unleashed.

She didn’t say a word. We were done. We didn’t speak again.

In many ways, this story is hugely unsatisying because the central action of the story is a blur. Its details have been lost in time with only its effects still felt like a phantom limb. What was it about? What did I say? It doesn’t matter.

Today

San Francisco, CA. I’ve been to Burning Man 6 years in a row. This year will be my 7th. It will be the first year that I work on building an art piece and the first year I will be involved with burning an art piece. With the help of my campmates at Friendlandia, in particular the designers Krista Sanders and Rob Bell (who builds these amazing Zomes), we are bringing The Śiṣya (pronounced SHI-shya), an art piece on loss and transformation.

In making the video for The Śiṣya, I was called upon to tell a story of loss and how it changed me. As I’m sure we all do, I had many to choose from—some shallower, some more recent, some even more raw.

But this memory of a past friend from a lifetime ago called to me. Because, though there was no turning back that moment, there was an opportunity to change for the future.

That one experience with Jeni is the point I realized that the closer you are to someone, the more you can hurt them. When someone allows themselves to be close to you, they are allowing themselves to be vulnerable, and trusting you with power to hurt them.

I can’t say I’ve never hurt anyone since then, but I can say that I’ve been much more mindful and caring of the trust given to me. I still make mistakes, still hurt people, still mishandle situations, but that one single experience was absolutely a turning point for me.

I’ve never been the same since that day. That day, I learned to turn the power to hurt into the even greater power to empathize.

Transformation

Black Rock City. The dust is blowing past your eyes but in the distance, you see The Man. A little closer in, a spiraling structure is calling to you. As you walk towards the spiral, you can smell the dust…or is it the pine plywood of the intricate cut outs in front of you?

The spiral is a wave, washing over you. You feel the wave. You are the wave. You read the stories of loss and transformation and recall your own. Recall how you did not overcome them, but they became you…a better you, a more powerful you.

You leave a note. You leave a memento. You come back on Thursday night. And you watch in awe as the wave, your wave, is ignited with the wave of light and flames and dust and heat.

You watch the transformation begin.

I wrote this piece to reflect on my experiences and explain some of the motivations for working on the piece. If this art piece speaks to you, please consider donating to help with its creation (no donation is too small), sharing with your friends, and hitting “recommend” below. I’ll also be writing next week about our camp Friendlandia and how we want to help recognize and celebrate friendships. Thanks for reading..

The Power to Listen. The Power to Empathize. was originally published in kev/null/writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It really doesn’t matter if you have the facts and the numbers

Have you ever played The Resistance?

It’s similar to deception games like Werewolf or Mafia. In it, players are assigned one of two secret roles—those who are in the Resistance and those who are government spies attempting to disrupt the Resistance. Only the spies know the identity of the other spies.

The game is a combination of logic, deduction, persuasion, and reading people. There are five rounds, each round the person whose turn it is (the Mission Leader) selects a number of people to go on a, “Mission.”

Everybody votes on whether they think this is a trustworthy team. If agreed upon, the mission proceeds and the members of the mission secretly submit one of two cards: Succeed or Fail. If the team isn’t agreed upon, the mission leader is transferred to the next player who proposes another team.

Upon mission completion, if there are enough Fail cards, the mission has failed and the spies have thwarted the mission. Otherwise, the mission succeeds.

Three successes give the Resistance victory, while three failures mean the spies have managed to destroy the Resistance’s efforts.

This One Time, in Thailand…

In a ten player game, there are four spies. The final two missions require five team members and two fail cards to fail.

We were on our fourth mission and the success/fail cards were being revealed. The cards were revealed and…three fail cards were revealed! The mission had failed. The game was tied two success to two failures and it was down to the final mission.

But the spies had made a crucial mistake! Three fail cards means that, of the five players who went on the mission, three were spies.

So the solution then is simple. Take the other five players on the next mission and only one spy would be in the team. It didn’t matter who it was, there wouldn’t be enough spies to fail the mission. The game is done! Checkmate!

Or so I thought.

Not being one of the spies, I excitedly pointed out this sure-win scenario to everyone. Another player, recognizing this as well, also jumped on the enthusiasm train.

“I don’t know. I don’t trust you,” said a Belgian player who, as it turned out, was not a spy.

“It doesn’t MATTER if you trust me. It’s just math! We can’t lose!” I said.

One of the spies, whom I could tell had also recognized the imminent loss, capitalized on the opportunity for chaos, “it’s not guaranteed!”

“No, it’s 100% probability we will win! What are you even saying?! Are you stupid?” I was raising my voice, aggravated that this was even being discussed.

And so it went. For maybe 15, maybe 30 mins. It felt like hours.

Eventually, there was so much chaos and distrust that the sure-fire team was voted down and the spies won. Dystopian rule of oppressive government continues to reign.

Emotions Rule

The fact that Trump is universally under-qualified to lead a country is irrelevant. The fact that Britain has financially benefitted, not lost, from being a part of the EU is irrelevant. The fact that Climate Change is real and agreed upon by the scientific community is irrelevant. The fact that a lack of broader gun control has clearly led to more gun-related violence is irrelevant.

Facts just get in the way of emotions. So much so that there is a fervent backlash to experts, science, and logic.

“I think people in this country have had enough of experts.” — Michael Gove, Justice Secretary campaigning for #TakeControl

In the end, it’s about emotions, it’s about identity, and it’s about dignity. A person identifies with being an American, a Brit, a car owner, a gun owner. They feel wronged, attacked, distrustful of those they perceive to be attacking the very fabric of their identity—the things that make them them.

The things that make them great.

Throw all the infographics and charts at your opposition you want. The more you do, the more it solidifies their distrust, the more it feels like you’re finding ways to take things away from them.

What Trump and Johnson offer is hope. Hope that their identity and lifestyles, which seem to have been continually under attack for years, can regain its former glory.

I’m not sure I could have done anything differently to change the outcome of that game of Resistance.

Maybe a more measured early assessment of the game instead would have helped. Maybe instead of dismissing and chastizing those that didn’t see the facts in plain sight, I could try to understand what they needed to feel heard.

Maybe it won’t make a difference but I’m going to try that next time.

Take Back Control and Make Me Great Again was originally published in kev/null/writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When we first met, I was struck by how boisterous, positive, and funny you were. It was not until much later, when we finally started connecting more frequently, did I recognize that I had only just scratched the surface.

Beneath the already bright exterior was a man of infinite depth, thoughtfulness, generosity, and optimism.

Today, your friends and family say goodbye to the vessel that carried your life, but your spirit emanates through each of us. You leave a great void in our lives, but equally, a challenge to fill that void with what you represent.

I feel our friendship was just beginning and had so many possibilities — that I had just opened the door to a brilliantly bright and star-filled room of opportunity, only to have the door close too soon.

In the past few months alone, you’ve impacted Coley’s and my life, both personally and professionally. We will continue to carry your words and advice with us, in our relationship, as well as in our work.

But most importantly, we’ll carry your brightness in our lives. We’ll always remember your words:

“More of everything.”

Thank you, Adam.

Dear Adam was originally published in kev/null/writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Announcing the release of my book. You don’t even need to know how to draw.

Update: You can buy the book for 25% off with discount code KEVINCHENG.

I’m pleased to announce the release of my book, See What I Mean. Whether you’re a fan of comics as a communication tool, or just looking for new ways to communicate your product, process, or ideas, I think you’ll enjoy this book.

You don’t need to hire an illustrator or even be one. I cover all the skills that you’ll need. This is a tool that’s been used by the likes of Google, Airbnb, Adobe, eBay, and even the USPS.

Best of all, each chapter is prefaced with a comic summarized version of the contents so you can read the comic form and get the general gist before diving into specifics. In fact, you can read the entire comic form in the book’s image gallery. Here’s a sample:

The book is on sale now at Rosenfeld Media with digital, DRM-free versions also available on the site. We prefer if you bought direct, but if you are so inclined, leave a review over on Amazon, as that will help with visibility of the book!

It’s been a long road leading up to this book, from the first Dragon Ball Z manga comics I drew as a kid, to drawing a comic for my undergrad engineering newspaper, to the weekly strip for UX professionals OK/Cancel, to announcing the book back in 2008, finishing the first draft in the woods, and finally, completion.

See What I Mean: How to Use Comics to Communicate Ideas was originally published in kev/null/writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When faced with a choice, do the one that scares you more

I was on the phone in the parking lot of Yahoo’s San Francisco incubator, Brickhouse. My job was fantastic. I had just months prior designed Pipes, dubbed, “a milestone in the history of the internet,” by Tim O’Reilly.

We had an incredible office, incredible location, great people, extremely flexible hours, the flexibility to work on what projects we wanted to, and the healthy pay that came with being a part of Yahoo.

On the phone with me was my younger brother, Jamie, who had started his own game company up in Vancouver. We were discussing whether I should take an offer to join a startup as an early, pre-Series A employee. A lot of pros and cons were thrown around: the commute, the risk, the industry, the economy, etc. Then he asked me:

“Which job would you learn more from?”

And it became immediately clear which choice was right. While Brickhouse was enjoyable and fulfilling, I knew that I was not learning much with each subsequent project. The growth had become incremental. So I took the leap and joined the startup.

In the past few years, I’ve been approached more for career advice. The problem with career advice is that everyone’s goals, personalities, risk profiles, and priorities are very different. But, assuming you’re looking to build a career which involves professional growth (as opposed to having it only as a means to an end), then my one piece of advice is always the same:

“Do what scares you.”

Some might call it, “getting out of the comfort zone,” but that term is almost a euphemism. It doesn’t convey the base emotion you should feel.

When you’re scared, it’s because you care a lot about the consequences. If you care, it’s probably the right thing to be doing. You’re scared because you don’t know exactly how to do it — which means you’ll probably learn a lot no matter the outcome.

When you think about the next thing you’re going to work on, you should feel that nervous, excited energy you get when you know you’re about to do something crazy, and you might royally fuck it up. But if you put everything into it, you will always have the lessons and the growth.

Take that leap.

Do What Scares You was originally published in kev/null/writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.